Add metered street side parking to help business

Published
8:04 am EDT, Sunday, May 4, 2014

To the Editor:

In reference to your front page article on Saturday May 3rd "WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?" concerning metered parking on South Main at Monroe Street. It would be a great benefit to SoNo if convenient metered street side parking was added the entire length of Monroe Street. Currently there is no street side parking on Monroe because as is the case throughout Norwalk the city places greater emphasis on fast high speed traffic flow than on supporting small retail businesses and economic growth with convenient street side parking. Years ago the city removed convenient street side parking on Monroe and replaced it with a totally un-needed right turn lane.

Monroe Street is key to the future economic success of SoNo. It is the main connection between the South Norwalk train station and downtown SoNo. For someone arriving by train, Monroe Street is going to be their first impression of SoNo so the city needs to do everything it can to make Monroe street a commercial success and as pedestrian friendly as possible. Adding metered street side parking should be the first step in this process.

Robert Gibbs, one of the foremost urban retail planners in the United States today and who is speaking at 50 Washington Street on Monday afternoon, says that every on-street parking space in a thriving retail district is worth $250,000 in sales to the nearby merchants on that street.

And it is a well known fact that street side parking makes for a more pedestrian friendly street by placing a buffer of parked cars between the sidewalk and passing traffic. In addition, by replacing the totally un-needed right turn lane on Monroe Street with metered street side parking Monroe will be a narrower street that naturally encourages slower traffic speeds, slow moving traffic is a key component of pedestrian friendly streets. Pedestrian friendly streets are business, retail and restaurant friendly streets.

So if you want to kill the retail and restaurant businesses on urban commercial streets like South Main or Washington Street remove the on-street metered parking and replace it with a turning lanes and high speed traffic. It works every time. But if you want to improve retail business, restaurants and economic growth on streets like Monroe or West Washington add metered street side parking and watch the transformation.